Exactly I felt a number of our members have already decided what he is despite his age and his continual progression.
In his own right though Lyle Odelein had an amazing career. 7th round picks rarely are this good at the NHL level. I believe his brother was a 1st round pick who didn't make it.
I think that it is readily apparent that Xhekaj is already an important leader on the team. So much so that he is probably one of the growing few who is an untouchable in the eyes of Hughes and Co.
You kind of need to have seen Odelein plays to understand. Statistically he was nothing special. But man he was a special player. Loved him a lot.
True if he ever develops some of Lyle's characteristics in the D zone it's a huge win IMO.
One of my favorites along with Keane and McPhee. Those guys played heavy games.
I was so sad as a young adult when we moved from Muller, Chelios, Odelein, Keane and cie to a more "milk drinking choir" team. Was the end of an era and the team never recovered. I like that size seem to be important to our current management. Two of the three top 5 picks they drafted are tall and they acquired Dach and Laine. They went for big guys after the 5th overall in this draft too. You can have small players like Hutson but you need a few big guys in your team and ideally not all 4th liners. Hope Xhekaj will develop his offensive game Odelein was an enforcer but he could play hockey when needed.
I knew a fella who played against Odelein (Regina days) and with/against others like Fleury, Brind’amour, etc … and he said Odelein’s hands were as good as any of the top players.
Odelein had great hands, remember when he shot the puck into the Sabres bench on purpose?
Odelein did lot of .... sort of questionable things on purpose. Mathieu Schneider and Damphousse too.
And I am so happy you shared it with us! Awesome!
It’s what made the Smurf era shortly after those guys even harder to take.
And Odelein would wipe the floor with Xhekaj and probably everyone in the league now.I see some of the Odelein comparisons a little, except he's 5 inches taller and 30 pounds heavier
Tie Domi.
He was awesome and his pairing was stout. Didn't chase the big hit all night and they finally came to him in the third.
Yup it was the one thing that impressed me most last season once he understood the message.
He played a more steady game,not roaming too much, smarter,more mature.
I remember once where Odie scored twice in a game, one of those was a beauty end-to-end rush. His big goofy grin was even bigger than usual for the post game interviews that night. They called him Lyle Gretzky on TV for like 3 weeks worth of games after that.
